Month: January 2019

I’m really in no mood to be sitting here typing, but I have to keep myself mentally busy. I mentioned that my uncle had passed away, and about a day or two ago, my grandmother passed away. It is the same side of the family so I can’t imagine what they’re going through right now.

I’m still busy thinking about going back home to Texas but talked to my mom and she said that people understand why I don’t go back home for these things. She says not to go, but I’m still considering it. I’d love to go back home, but she said she’d rather have me there for Christmas, so I am also considering that. I don’t know what to do. (The prices to go back home and fly to Houston is pretty good.)

This grandmother was one of the people in the family that was one of my favourites. I loved this lady so very much. She was always very sweet and hardly ever got angry. I don’t think I had ever seen her angry. She was also great company and I loved spending time with her. I was looking forward to seeing her at the end of this year, but I guess that won’t be happening now, sadly. I also would have loved for her to come here too but don’t know if that would have been possible anyway due to her health lately. I probably should have asked her to come 15 years ago, but I guess there’s no sense in thinking what I could have done.

As always, I reflect on my time here in Australia and how this kind of thing drives me crazy because I really want to go back home and maybe someday, to live. I am getting more sad because I think about my mom and my sister a lot and how I’m missing out on their lives and such.

Well, okay. I’ve said what I needed to say. I’m just going to sit back and try to divert my mind from this little topic.

Take good care of yourselves and the people that you love, especially if you’re close to them.

What kind of person would I be if I didn’t say “Happy Australia Day” to you? Well, I don’t really know. Around this time every year, there is talk about changing the date because this is pretty much “Invasion Day”. I am not really knowledgeable about Australia Day itself, but I know that it’s usually a day for me to be lazy and believe me, I’ve been super lazy today. I pretty much sat in a chair in front of the computer the whole time since lately, my significant other has taken a liking to only talking to me when I’ve done something wrong, when he wants me to do something, or to try to guilt-trip me. I needed a break from it.

Back to Australia Day. I do think that every country needs a day to celebrate, well, being a country. A lot of countries have quite a few nasty spots in their histories, and I guess the way that I’ve heard it, you can’t really celebrate anything because something bad always happens for us to get where we are today.

I’m one of those people who really feels sympathy for Aboriginal Australians. I’ve been lucky enough to have learned a lot of stuff about them over the past year and it is absolutely incredible and unfortunate what they’ve had to go through. I wouldn’t want to celebrate anything like that. I know that things have changed since then, but I still feel like there is a lot more that could be done and I think the ONLY way for good changes to happen is to start conversations with the original owners of this country.

So I’m not really sure where I stand on this whole thing. I think Australia and BEING an Australian is a wonderful thing. I’m so happy, lucky, and fortunate to be able to live in such an amazing place. I’ve said this so many times because I really and truly mean it.

That’s all from me for now.

I guess it’s also India’s Republic Day so I guess we’d be double celebrating if we were talking to each other. lol

NOTE: This post uses the new web player so it might not function or look correctly. I’ll be working on it when I have time. (The default is to use the built-in browser media player. If you’d like to switch to the themed player, look at the preferences by clicking the menu button in the upper right, and change the themed player setting to ‘Yes’.)

Sometimes I feel like I take certain things for granted, for example, my partner, my freedom of expression, religion, or the ability to go to any naughty site I want. I heard from somewhere that India’s government blocks naughty sites and thought I’d try it out (using the Epic web browser). I clicked a little button that gave me a choice of where I wanted to pretend like I was in and chose India. Then I went to a naughty site and this is what I came up with:

I removed the site because well, I wouldn’t want to cloud your mind with the evil of naked imagery and adult situations, would I? (No. Not on this weblog at least!)

I’m actually a little opinionated on this kind of censorship. I know there are some really intelligent and crafty people in India who could probably do the exact same thing I did and circumvent these little restrictions and watch all the porn they want.

Porn, for me, can be an educational tool. It can also be a tool to get out a bit of frustration, if you know what I mean. When used in moderation (and in normal situations), it’s not such a bad thing. I don’t see it as evil. It can be addictive, sure, but I don’t believe that would apply to 100% of the population.

India, I hear, has a problem in regards to sex and sex education. Myself, didn’t do a sex education bit when I was growing up, or if I did, it was done in a really non-sexual way. My mom basically gave my sister and me a book and said “Read this” and it had everything about it. It also covered homosexuality and maybe that’s when I started to think about myself and who I was. Indians, again, I hear, are not really open about talking about sex. So basically, they need to get the information from somewhere because sex exploration is a part of getting older and maturing. They may go to these sites and see some of this stuff and expect that this is how you act during sex and well, what you see in porn movies isn’t what it’s like in real life a majority of the time. People aren’t normally sexual like that. Maybe that’s what the Indian government doesn’t want Indians to think. Maybe it’s primarily for religious reasons. Maybe this is how they keep their citizens “safe”. I don’t really know, but judging from a lot of headlines, some kind of sex education needs to be done and more free access to these materials should be accessible. It would really make a difference. Banning “all” porn (I say “all” because ALL isn’t possible, but it’s also encouraging some of the most vile material as well), isn’t the way to go.

I do believe that the most horrible stuff needs to be censored though. I don’t think that it should only be censored, but the parties responsible for it need to go to prison or whatever. Absolutely. If any government wants to prevent their citizens from seeing that or accessing that, I think that’s perfectly fine. But who says what is “good” or “bad”? That’s the big question.

I know I’ve said this before, but I really hate summer. Right now, most of Australia is in the middle of a heatwave. The temperature has been near 40ºC/104ºF everyday (43ºC/109ºF today) for a while and I don’t think we’re actually going to get a break from it for a while. I’ve had to step outside once today and I really hope I won’t have to do that again! (I do… I have to water our grass or it will just become a fire hazard and believe me, I don’t want our grass to catch on fire.

I also haven’t been feeling that great lately either. I am getting incredible headaches/migraines every few days. My husband wants me to go to the doctor… in Melbourne since I like that doctor a lot more.

Anyway, I hope everybody is doing well and staying warm if you’re in the middle of winter (and sane if you’re in the USA), and cool (and hydrated) if you’re in Australia! Much love my freezing (or sweating) friends!

I talk about what’s happened in 2018 and how I hope to improve myself in 2019. I talk about what I hope is going to happen this year and how I am proud of myself about what I’ve accomplished on a personal level last year. I have high hopes for the future and I won’t let myself down.

NOTE: This post uses the new web player so it might not function or look correctly. I’ll be working on it when I have time. (The default is to use the built-in browser media player. If you’d like to switch to the themed player, look at the preferences by clicking the menu button in the upper right, and change the themed player setting to ‘Yes’.)

NOTE: This post uses the new web player so it might not function or look correctly. I’ll be working on it when I have time. (The default is to use the built-in browser media player. If you’d like to switch to the themed player, look at the preferences by clicking the menu button in the upper right, and change the themed player setting to ‘Yes’.)

I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you guys that a few friends back home have started a podcast about gaming, and you should really listen to it. In fact, that’s what I’m listening to right this second. Good stuff. It makes me miss the episodes I used to record with my best friend. I love gaming and I know a lot of you out there love it too. I want to encourage them to keep going and keep it up!

Anyway, if you’re still confused, I’ll repost their about information for you:

“We are both full-grown adults with graying hair and failing backs that are actively trying to balance our gaming life with married life, work life, personal skilled life, and more while retaining our sanity. Our goal is to put out a one hour show once or twice a month that you can sneak on your lunch break or on the go that will hopefully keep you entertained enough to keep fighting the good fight against the daily grind, the man, or even Ganondorf if need be!”

If you’d like to listen, you can do so from the player below or you can visit their SoundCloud page.